Thursday, August 9, 2012

Day 22: Cache at the 16,200ft Ridge


I must admit that I’m still a little drained from yesterday, but after five days in a tent doing nothing it’s nice to get some exercise. Our cache today was actually pretty exciting. The bad weather from yesterday continued to persist and, though we were sheltered from the high winds for much of the day, the clouds and snow did not abate at all.  It took us around four hours to get up to the ridge due to the less-than-ideal weather conditions, and much longer going down than expected because white-out conditions developed. After coming down the fixed lines, Roman, who was on point, couldn’t find the trail so we all roped up into one big line and one of my new guides—Karen—took the lead. She is clearly a strong and experienced guide, and with her at the front we were able to get back on the path and make it safely down to Camp III once more.

My new group is very international, even more so than my last group. There are two other Americans, one South African, two Germans, a Slovakian, and an Australian. It was a pretty tough adjustment to leave my original group and just jump right into a new one, but my two tent-mates, Karin (the South African) and Tess (the Alaskan) have been especially welcoming. To be honest, I’m most excited to be able to eat more of Mountain Trip’s fabulous expedition food. Tonight we had pizza again. It was delicious! Nom nom nom. 

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